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The crowning touch
Weston company provides distinctive look for Wausau's latest jewel
By Ed Wodalski
"I made that." There's a personal satisfaction that comes with being able to say those words. In a way, The Palladian, Wausau's newest downtown landmark, represents that for Custom Design Precast of Weston. Unveiled in May, the $12 million, six-story, 61,000-square-foot multipurpose facility represents a crown jewel for Custom Design Precast co-owners Jerry Grunow, Todd Opal, Jack Fischer and their employees. "I love that commercial on TV where the guy pulls up in his pickup truck with his boy and says, 'You see that house there? I built that.' And the guy in front of the house with his boy says, 'See that truck there? I built it,'" said regional sales manager John Dolan. "I tell Todd, someday you're going to be downtown with your grandchildren, and you're going to say, 'See that building there? I did that. For as long as we live, we'll look at it and say, yes, we were part of that. You can't put a price tag on that," Dolan said. "We're just fortunate that Jack and Todd are very talented people. They're very adamant about quality." A sample of that craftsmanship is most evident in the ornate, concrete exterior that gives the first two floors of The Palladian its distinctive look. Look close at the rising arches and you'll see a detailed letter "P" for Palladian and graphic compass for the company that manages the building for philanthropist investors Bob Weirauch, John Noel and John Dudley.
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Northern Wire runs lean
Award-winning Merrill fabricator strives to streamline production
By Amanda Lauer
As the tagline says, "Nothing runs like a Deere," and companies such as Merrill's Northern Wire LLC help keep the outdoor-equipment maker running strong. Recently, the Merrill company was named the 2007 C & CE Division Supplier of the Year in John Deere's Achieving Excellence Program. Considering that John Deere has been in business for 171 years, has 52,000 employees worldwide, with most recent quarterly earnings reported at $763 million, that recognition for Northern Wire, one of its partner-level suppliers, is quite an accomplishment. Tony Fernandez, president and chief operating officer of Northern Wire, talked about his company and how it got to the level of excellence it's at today. "We are a wire fabricator or a wire former," he said. "The types of products we manufacture are tie rod type products, gear shift levers and things of that sort, things that would hold wheels. If you can envision a bar that's been bent, that's what we do. Northern Wire has been in business more than 40 years. It started in Gleason but moved to Merrill probably 30 years ago." While the company has been in the same facility since the move, it has expanded to 70,000 square feet of manufacturing area, Fernandez said. According to the company's Web site, www.northernwire.com, its four areas of concentration are fabrication, welding, plating and assembly. "We are self-contained in that we buy our wire, we do the wire forming and we also have a plating operation," Fernandez said. "So, any of the wire forms that we actually manufacture here we can plate before we send them
to our customers, which gives us a competitive advantage. A lot of the wire formers have to send it to a secondary plater."
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Growth Strategies
Merrill's F-M Enterprises builds on its success
By Ed Wodalski
"I quit my job." Those weren't the words Renea Frederick, a former chiropractor's assistant, was expecting when she took a call from her husband, Todd, in 1993. Looking back, it might have been the best news she ever got. Today, Renea Frederick is CEO of F-M Enterprises Inc. of Merrill, a worldwide distributor of curtain walls, sunshades, fixed windows, store fronts and doors, engineering and manufacturing the support structure for the glass on large-scale buildings. You can see its work along the entrance to Wausau East High School, the remodeled Church Mutual Insurance headquarters, Discovery World Museum in Milwaukee, C&A Industries in Omaha, the IBM Think plant in Rochester, Minn., St. Mary's Hospital in Mequon, and the Froedtert Cancer Center in Milwaukee. The company is completing work on Citi Field and the Jackie Robinson rotunda - new home of the New York Mets in 2009 - and in August, will begin fabrication on the 53-story high-rise urban luxury resort in downtown Charlotte, known as 210 Trade. Penthouse condos sell for up to $5 million, and Michael Jordan is said to be a future resident. The project is expected to take F-M about nine months to complete. "I just had it and went into my boss's office and gave my two weeks' notice," said Todd Frederick, a mechanical design graduate from Northcentral Technical College who had been employed at a Wausau manufacturing company for 15 years. Working from home the next four months, Frederick was engineering and providing drawings when a customer asked if he had ever done any
fabricating. "And I really hadn't until that point," Frederick said. "But I told him I would look into it." Frederick, today president of the company he founded, called Renea's brother, Dale Marquardt, the "M" in F-M and basically said, "Dale, how would you like to go without a paycheck for about six months and start something new on your own?" Marquardt said, "Sure." And F-M Enterprises was born.
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Owner of Bull Falls Brewery enjoys his craft
Aug. 9 Blas Fest to provide a taste of area's German heritage
By Ed Wodalski
Mike Zamzow has a passion for beer. As co-owner with his father, Don, of Bull Falls Brewery LLC in Wausau, Zamzow has seen his nearly year-old business grow in appeal. Marketed mostly by word-of-mouth, his German-inspired lagers can be enjoyed in a dozen Wausau area establishments, as well as the brewery's adjoining Tap Room at 901 E. Thomas St., open at 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday. There visitors can grab a handful of peanuts, saddle up to the granite bar and sample one of the eight varieties on tap. Wine also is served, and just last month, the Tap Room began offering plates of cheese and crackers with a side dish of grapes. "Some notable things about our place is Deb Hadley had her election night reception here," Zamzow said of the Wausau mayoral candidate. "And while she didn't win, it was kind of an honor for her to select our place, because the TV stations were here and 55-AM (WSAU) radio. And that was really exciting." On Aug. 9, the brewery also will sponsor Bull Falls Blas Fest, an 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. German folk festival, featuring food, music dancing, and of course, Bull Falls beer at Fern Island in downtown Wausau. Highlighting the day will be an appearance by the German brass band Dorfmusikanten Schliengen, a nod to Zamzow's 72-year-old father, a member of the Jerry Goetsch band and Polka Productions tour group for 42 years. Zamzow said his greatest satisfaction is hearing people compliment him on his beer, although he finds the attention a bit humbling. He also is a partner in his father's GIT software company, and
might have never gotten into the beer business except for a failed business opportunity and a thoughtful wife.
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The List
Tourism growth by county
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